Picture this: the bell rings at the end of the day, and Eric reluctantly trudges to Mr Reyden's room, dragging his feet and shooting poisonous glares at anyone who dares get in his way.
He swings open the door to find his Chemistry teacher waiting with another student, he recognises the boy from some of his classes, and pauses uncertainly in the doorway.
"Eric," Mr Reyden nods in his general direction before gesturing to the nerdy-looking student beside him, "This is Charles, and he's going to be your Chemistry mentor for the next few months, or at least until you're getting consistent Cs. You'll be meeting outside of school times, and I'll leave it to you guys to decide on the rest."
Charles is a gentle-looking guy in... Was that a cardigan? He leans forward to extend his hand to Eric with a shy but warm smile and says quietly, "Charles Xavier."
After a moment of expectant silence, Eric shakes his hand firmly, and the smaller boy's hand is surprisingly soft. What harm could it do him to have a tutor? It wasn't like he would have to befriend him.
"Eric Lensherr."
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Picture this: before leaving to meet Eric at their chosen place of study - the library - Charles hovers nervously in front of the mirror in his hallway.
He's worried that Eric will think he's weird if he turns up in "grandpa clothes", but he never feels comfortable in anything else.
After seven minutes of intense debate on the matter, he decides to swap his current brown cardigan for a navy blue one, because at least it looked slightly more normal with his jeans.
But what if - hang on, since when does he care about his appearance?
What's happening to him?
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Picture this: Eric pushes open the doors of the library with too much strength, and winces slightly at the loud squeal that they produce as he heads into the room.
A wonderful bonus of the noise is that the entire library is now staring accusingly at him, as if they are all thinking the same thing: what on earth that guy doing in a library?
Eric knows that he is intimidating, but it doesn't help him in this situation because this is not a school full of pubescent lads, he's surrounded by a strange mix of nine year-olds and old women.
After an intense moment of strained silence, Eric feels a feather-light touch on his shoulder and snaps his head round to find Charles looking up at him with a shy smile.
"Hi, so... do you want to come over here and get started?" Eric watches Charles flounder underneath his gaze and gesture towards a secluded table in the back corner.
He simply nods without a word and allows the little nerd to lead him over to the table, sitting down opposite him and eyeing the mountain of ominously thick science books.
For a brief moment, he lets his eyes trail across to Charles and finds that he has to fight down a smile at his strange but weirdly cute pairing of a woolen cardigan and skinny jeans.
Then Charles clears his throat, grabbing Eric's attention, and blushes before opening the book from the top of the towering pile, "Shall we begin?"
YOU ARE READING
Educating Eric (Cherik AU)
FanfictionPicture this: Eric is an outcast who gave up on his education roughly two days after he started secondary school, he doesn't give a shit about anyone because he doesn't need friends to be happy. Or at least, that's what he tells himself. Picture thi...
